[2024] UKUT 0414 (LC)

The application was made on 14 December 2023 seeking discharge or modification of the restriction, under grounds (a), (aa) and (c), to permit implementation of the planning permission granted on 18 October 2022 for the redevelopment scheme.

By the time of the hearing it was agreed between the parties that the restriction prevented the erection of buildings for non-agricultural use, but not the use of existing buildings. The applicant could therefore implement the conversion scheme, which received planning consent on 25 May 2022, without being in breach of the restriction.

It followed from this agreement that the benefits secured to the objector by the restriction were derived from being able to prevent the redevelopment scheme but not the conversion scheme. It was therefore necessary to compare the impact which each scheme would have on the objectors.

The agreement had come late in the day and it was clear that neither of the experts had been instructed in these specific terms, but each was aware of the conversion scheme as one of the series of planning consents secured by the applicant.